Gingrich has dropped to fourth, or even fifth place in recent polls, a major decline from his spot at the front just weeks ago, when he declared with confidence that he’d be the nominee.

But Monday, he cast himself as the moral victor for being able to keep his campaign going even with the negative attack ads being run against him.

“If you look at the numbers, that volume of negativity has done enough damage. Whatever I do tomorrow night will be a victor because I’m still standing,” Gingrich said.

After Iowa, Gingrich will fly to New Hampshire, where he’s running behind. Gingrich will be one of the first candidates out of Iowa, hurrying out of the state Tuesday night.

But then it’s on to South Carolina, which he has long considered his stronghold and where he has the greatest organizational presence.

The former House speaker drew a moderate-sized crowd to a farming museum in Independence, where he delivered his stump speech and took questions. His demeanor was more upbeat than the past few days, when he was suffering from a cold.

After a couple of days of taking swipes at the rest of the GOP field, Gingrich switched his focus Monday to President Barack Obama, citing a report that an Obama administration official had said they no longer need Congress.

“I don’t know what country he thinks he’s in, but it’s constitutionally impossible to govern without Congress,” Gingrich said. “It’s not possible, and I think it tells you how little the president understands about the American Constitution.”

Gingrich, who has argued himself that two branches can ignore a third, said that Obama shouldn’t be working better with Congress, saying the entire lot was “like second graders” and “childish.”

“He’s going to be a candidate for an entire year,” Gingrich said. “He shouldn’t take a salary.”

At a campaign stop in Walford, Gingrich began his speech with a long critique of Obama’s cooperation with Congress.

“The level of absurdity of suggesting that he’s going to try to govern for a year without Congress shows you everything that is sick about Washington,” he said.

He side-stepped questions about House Speaker John Boehner’s role in negations that have deadlocked over a series of budgetary issues.

When asked in Walford about Iran, he shifted gears to repeat his criticism of Ron Paul on foreign policy, warning that the nation would be in trouble if it continues “to hire people who are amateurs and incompetents.”

“This isn’t the high school senior class president,” he said. “This is life and death.”

Gingrich’s campaign has also shifted its schedule, announcing that instead of speaking at a caucus in Johnston, which is just outside of Des Moines, Gingrich will appear in Waterloo. Gingrich drew one of his largest, most enthusiastic crowds of the week at a stop in Waterloo on Sunday night.